The last surviving sibling of JFK has passed.
From The New York Times:
Jean Kennedy Smith, a sister of the Kennedy clan who as the United States ambassador to Ireland in the 1990s helped pave the way for a formal agreement to end decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, died on Wednesday at her home in Manhattan.She was 92.
Her death was confirmed by her daughter Kym.
Ms. Smith was the youngest and last-surviving sibling in a family that embedded itself in the American consciousness and wrote itself into American history, producing a president and senators and an unrivaled mystique fashioned out of political glory, personal charisma, great wealth and staggering tragedy.
Until the age when most people retire, Ms. Smith led a quiet life of privilege and philanthropy, with palatial homes, summers at the shore and a busy calendar of society and charity functions. She shared family triumphs and tragedies, though always in the shadow of her siblings, including President John F. Kennedy, Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy, Eunice Shriver and Patricia Kennedy Lawford.
But in 1993, when she was 65, a doyenne of charity balls and the widow of Stephen E. Smith, the Kennedy family’s troubleshooter and financial adviser, Ms. Smith was named ambassador to Dublin by President Bill Clinton at the behest of her brother Teddy. But he had no illusions about her appointment.
Neither did her social circle.
“When Jean was posted to Ireland, people thought, ‘Oh, gosh,’” said Muffie Brandon, a Washington socialite.
Ms. Smith was the first Kennedy woman of her generation to take on a serious political job. Like her sisters and the wives of her brothers, she had had roles in family political campaigns, but not in public service. Her father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., had been the ambassador to Britain when she was a little girl, and she had visited Ireland, the land of her ancestors, many times.
Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her…
